Page 118 of It Was You All Along

‘No, but I can make up some more,’ I say, unhooking my arms from Ollie’s waist. ‘Is Sam really still vegetarian?’

‘I give it another week,’ Liv replies knowingly. ‘When he went vegan before Thanksgiving he lasted forty-eight hours.’

‘Do Toby and Ben still want these burgers?’ Ollie asks, looking across to the garden furniture where their new Staffordshire bull-terrier puppy is chewing the side of a rattan chair leg. ‘Erm,’ he nudges me, ‘can you …?’

‘Yep, I’m on it,’ I say, grabbing a sausage from the ‘ready’ pile and putting it on a plate. I get on my hands and knees and give the little dog a stroke. She turns her attention from the rattan and eyes the sausage.

‘Oh, she’s very fussy,’ Toby says.

‘She loves rattan, though,’ I point out.

‘Oh, shit – sorry,’ Ben says, looking down at the chair. ‘Give her the sausage. Sorry,’ he says, attempting to tuck the stray bits of rattan back into the weave.

‘Don’t worry about it. Ollie’s dad gave it to us because they’ve bought a new set.’

‘How are your parents?’ Toby asks.

‘Don’t say it like that,’ Ollie calls over, not for the first time. He points the tongs at Toby in warning and tries to hide a grimace.

I emphasise the words, ‘My mum and Ollie’s dadare currently in Paris.’

‘Oh, that’s lovely,’ Toby replies, paying no attention. ‘Quicker just to say “your parents”, though, isn’t it?’

‘No,’ I say forcefully. ‘It isn’t quicker to call them that at all.’

Toby grins devilishly. ‘I think I’ll go and grab those burgers, if they’re ready. And wind Ollie up a bit more about your parents and their holiday in Venice.’

‘They’re in Paris.’

‘I don’t care, darling.’ Toby laughs fiendishly and goes off to amuse himself.

‘Sorry about him,’ Ben says. ‘Itisweird, though.’

‘I know,’ I sigh. ‘I know.’

‘Do you think Daniel’s going to propose?’ Ben asks. ‘Is that why they’re in Paris.’

‘We’re trying not to think about it,’ I confess, which makes Ben smile. Although we do want Mum and Ollie’s dad to behappy, and they both currently are. But the next step is probably a proposal, which means …’

‘Then in addition to being together, you and Ollie will be stepbrother and stepsister,’ Toby calls back. ‘Won’t that be nice?’

‘Is that even legal?’ Sam asks Liv quietly.

‘Yes,’ she replies. ‘It is. It’s just … a bit strange.’

‘I’m not a violent person,’ Ollie says to Toby, ‘but I might hit you.’

Toby cackles with delight. ‘Oh, this is too good. I do hope Daniel proposes. I hope it’s today, while we’re here. Please let it be today.’

‘I might hit you too,’ I tell him with a warning look.

‘No more wine for Toby, I think,’ Ben says, discreetly moving the bottle out of sight. I give him a loving look. Determinedly still sober, he’s such a different Ben from the man I first met, the man I fell in love with and then out of love with, the man who helped me discover whoIwas. While Ollie helped me discover what I wanted from my life, what I deserved. My world has changed since then in so many different ways. The highs turned to lows; the lows turned to highs.

More than ten years ago an eighteen-year-old Ollie crashed into me on the stairs of our halls of residence. Shy, quiet, tongue-tied, unable to speak too much to me – or anyone; mishearing my name and calling me his version of it for ever.

And then, a decade later, my first proper boyfriend is one of my greatest friends. And Ollie became my fiancé. I thinkback to that very first day and the years that followed and wonder how it took me so long to see what Ollie felt that day: that we should have been together.It was him all along.It just took us a while to get here. And because it did, we have family who are friends, and friends who are family.

And we wouldn’t have it any other way.